Home Office says Tina MacFarlane not a British citizen, recommends court opinion

The UK government has warned Tina MacFarlane she may need a High Court judgment to definitively rule out being a dual citizen, which would render her ineligible to sit in the Australian parliament.

“TRUE local” candidate Tina MacFarlane could be a British citizen.

Documents submitted to the Australian Electoral Commission by Mrs MacFarlane show the CLP’s candidate for Solomon sought legal advice in May last year, showing she had attempted to renounce any British citizenship with the UK Home Office.

The Home Office concluded she was “most likely not a British subject by descent”, which Mrs MacFarlane’s lawyers said gave them “confidence” that she was not a British citizen.

But the letter contains a crucial caveat – that the citizenship question can only be definitively settled by a High Court judgment.

“The Home Office also asked us to note only a court was able to determine conclusively whether you held British citizenship or not,” the letter said.

Tina MacFarlane’s office brands herself as a ‘true local’. Picture: File

The CLP has contested it is also “confident” in her eligibility, despite not outlining whether Mrs MacFarlane has taken the matter to the High Court.

Her opponents have quietly flagged that it appears no further action in court has been taken, and has the potential to revive constitutional dramas which saw numerous politicians, including Barnaby Joyce, recontest their seats for holding dual citizenships last decade.

Under section 44 of the Australian Constitution, a person is ineligible to serve in the Australian Parliament if they are a dual citizen.

Mrs MacFarlane’s AEC nomination form states that her father was born in Suva, Fiji in 1922, which at the time was a British colony.

Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Tina MacFarlane, CLP Candidate for Solomon, in Darwin on Tuesday. (Photo by Asanka Ratnayake/Getty Images)

Fiji was only granted independence in 1970, and British law states that anyone whose father is born in a British colony could be eligible for British citizenship.

A CLP spokesman for Mrs MacFarlane said the party was backing her.

“Ms MacFarlane cannot be a British citizen by descent as neither her nor her father were automatically given that status,” the spokesman said.

“For the avoidance of doubt, Ms MacFarlane also renounced any access to any entitlement to British Overseas Citizenship status or any similar status, which the Home Office has accepted.”

In 2017 and 2018, Section 44 of the constitution was responsible for 15 Canberra politicians being ruled ineligible to sit in parliament.

It caused the then-Turnbull government to lose its majority in the lower house and saw a wave of by-elections by politicians who were forced to resign.

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